The present invention relates to an electrical connector, and an electrical connector assembled component that includes the electrical connector and a mating connector thereof. More specifically, the present invention relates to an electrical connector having a terminal configured so that a contact portion of the terminal contacting with a mating terminal of a mating connector is capable of shifting within a specific amount, and to an electrical connector assembled component that includes the electrical connector and a mating connector thereof.
A conventional electrical connector of this type has been disclosed in, for example, Patent reference. The conventional electrical connector includes male terminals made through punching a sheet metal in a sheet thickness direction. The male terminals have a shape of a transverse S-character, in which a U-shape section thereof is connected to an inverse U-shaped section thereof. The male terminals also include contact points to contact with mating terminals of the mating connector, and the contact points are formed at arm sections at a free arm side of the U-shaped sections.
Patent Reference: Japanese Utility Model Application Publication No. 04-051782
In the conventional electrical connector, the inverse U-shaped sections of the male terminals function as intermediate parts. Accordingly, the free end-side arm that forms the contact point can elastically displace in a direction to move towards or away from the inverse U-shaped section, i.e., in the width direction of the conventional electrical connector. As such, it is possible to secure contact pressure at the contact points, and to enable the elastic displacement also in the terminal arrangement direction (an arrangement pitch direction of the male terminals), that is the plate thickness direction of the male terminals. The terminal arrangement direction is a longitudinal direction of the conventional electrical connector, and usually a number of terminals are arranged in the terminal arrangement direction.
The conventional electrical connector is attached to a circuit board for use and often is fitted and connected to a mating connector mounted on another circuit board. In this case, all the terminals may not always contact and connect to mating terminals at normal positions due to manufacturing errors and mounting/attaching errors, and the terminals could be off from their normal positions. In this case, according to the conventional electrical connector disclosed in Patent Reference, described above, the male terminals can elastically displace not only in the width direction of the conventional electrical connector but also in the terminal arrangement direction. Therefore, it is possible to absorb any influence from the displacement by the elastic displacement in the plate thickness direction of the male terminals.
In addition, according to the conventional electrical connector disclosed in Patent Reference, it is also possible to absorb the displacement in the width direction of the conventional electrical connector perpendicular to the terminal arrangement direction through elastic displacement of the male terminals within the sheet surface thereof. Therefore, the positions of the contact points where the terminals contacts with the mating terminals of the mating connector can move in both the terminal arrangement direction and the width direction of the conventional electrical connector, forming a so-called “floating structure”.
According to the conventional electrical connector disclosed in Patent Reference, however, there are mechanical and electrical issues due to generation of additional elastic displacement on the terminals so as to be capable of adding elastic displacement necessary for obtaining the contact pressure with the mating terminals and enabling the floating of the conventional electrical connector.
First, as the mechanical issues, in case of a connector in which a number of terminals are arranged, in order to enable the floating so as to absorb the displacement, if the terminals are elastically displaced, the counterforce by the elastic displacement tends to be strong since the total number of the terminals is large. Accordingly, it is difficult to obtain the floating to a sufficient extent in some cases. As a result, contact failure may occur at the terminals. Furthermore, it is not preferred in view of the strength that the terminals always generate a stress by the elastic displacement.
The electrical issues include deterioration of high-speed transmission characteristics. As described above, according to the conventional electrical connector disclosed in Patent reference, in order to enable the floating as well as the elastic displacement necessary for the contact pressure to the mating terminals, additional elastic displacement is generated on the terminals. In order to fully secure the elastic displacement, the inverse U-shaped sections, which are portions that can elastically displace, need to be long. As obvious from Patent reference, in the terminals of the conventional electrical connector, both arms of the inverse U-shaped sections have generally the same lengths as those of other portions, i.e., the U-shaped sections, so as to obtain displacement greater than the elastic displacement necessary for secure contact with the mating terminals. Accordingly, the signal transmission length tends to become long, which in turn may cause deterioration of the high-speed transmission characteristics.
In order to solve the problems of the conventional electrical connector described above, an object of the present invention is to provide an electrical connector and an electrical connector assembled component having the electrical connector and a mating connector thereof capable of solving the problems. In the present invention, it is possible to solve the mechanical and electrical issues of the conventional electrical connector described in Patent Reference without requiring additional elastic displacement for the floating, which is greater than the minimum elastic displacement necessary for the contact pressure to obtain upon contacting with the mating terminals of the mating connector.
Further objects and advantages of the present invention will be apparent from the following description of the present invention.